Writing for the Birds: Who knew school could be so fun?by Katie Diggs (ESS, 2018)

Welcome back to campus fellow Broncos! Winter has finally arrived in Santa Clara bringing with it chilly mornings, rainy days, and early sunsets. Many of the trees on campus have dropped their fall foliage for the winter season, which although slightly less scenic makes for great bird viewing!

Dr. Farnsworth, a longtime bird enthusiast, and a classful of fledgling (ha!) birders will be taking advantage of the good birding this winter both on campus and off in his advanced writing course “Writing for the Birds”.

The class, which debuted last winter, was a great success and is back this quarter by popular demand. While Tuesdays will be spent in the classroom honing our nature writing skills and brushing up on our bird knowledge, Thursdays we will take to the lawns and walkways of campus in pursuit of our avian brethren.

On most days, Black Phoebe’s can be spotted perched on O’Connor’s windowsills searching for breakfast. House Sparrows are usually busy constructing nests, last year a family made themselves at home in the arch East of Kenna. Juvenile Bewick’s Wrens can be heard practicing their songs while perched high in the palms along Palm Drive.

Winter visitors to campus include Cedar Waxwings, which congregate in groups and frequent Ignatius Lawn, White-Crowned Sparrows which can be spotted foraging for thistle among campuses many lawns, and Wilson’s Warblers whose bright yellow plumage and black cap make them an exciting bird to spot.

Once we get the basics of birding down, we will begin our series of off-campus field trips which will give us a chance to explore the bay area’s diversity. We will look for shorebirds and ducks at Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge, falcons and hawks at Skaggs Island and we will have one last field trip which the location of which is yet to be determined.

It will be an exciting adventure-filled quarter. Keep your eyes peeled for unfamiliar birds and for students wandering around with binoculars early in the morning (Give them a high-five and ask them if they’ve seen anything interesting!).

If you’re looking to do some birding but don’t have time to commit to the class, keep an eye out for details about a birding and nature writing workshop this quarter as well as a field drawing workshop!

During the cool, early morning hours of April 25th, 2016, members of students, faculty, and staff gathered for Santa Clara University's first Bioblitz. A "bioblitz" is a rapid assessment of biodiversity present in a given area, and they are done with the purpose of generating a species census, and engaging the community in natural history and ecology.

SCU Gone Wild provided binoculars, species checklists, and field guides specific to Santa Clara's Campus. Between the hours of 6:00 am to noon, participants were able to identify over 60 species present on Santa Clara University's grounds.

Thanks to the participants of this years' Bioblitz, we were able to add many new species to our checklist, especially our bird list. We hope that you are amazed, just as we perpetually are, at what can be found just at our doorstep.

Following are the results of April's Bioblitz: ​( * asterisk indicates species first observed on campus during bioblitz )

On June 3 our class visited Francis Beach at Half Moon Bay State Beach, where restoring the dunes with native flora has been the main priority since 1993. The area we visited was used for agriculture for many years and still borders some active agricultural sites. Consequently, before they started in the 1990s, the area was almost 100% covered by exotic weeds. We visited this site to see what a real life restoration project looks like. The people working here rely heavily on their extensive experience to guide their efforts. They have made significant restoration progress with a very limited budget.

One of the first locations we visited was the native plant nursery where the restorationists source all of their natives for their plantings. The nursery is entirely run and operated by volunteers. Each year, they go out and gather seeds from native plants that are found within the Half Moon Bay State Beach landscape to ensure that their seedlings fit into the genetic makeup of the landscape. This year, the volunteers were excited to find a Killdeer(Charadrius vociferus)
had established a nest in their nursery.

The restoration strategy is
described by park ecologist Joanne Kerbavaz as “plant the bejeebers out of it.”
Translated, park rangers and volunteers will “overplant” the landscape with
native species, such as yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Beach sagewort
(Artemisia pycnocephala), with minimal space in between seedlings. Then
they “see what survives,” which usually entails removing invasives like Cape ivy
(Delairea odorata) that crowd out the young native plants. Due to
the limitations of budget and staffing, the rangers rely heavily on volunteers
to perform all of the work.

Dune restoration in California mostly focuses on the listed species that call those dunes homes. They are adapted to shifting dune habitats (from constant onshore winds) and high levels of disturbance (such as storm surges). The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) likes to nest on the open sand patches on the dunes. The bottom photo (below) shows an area where the rangers put up a fence to protect nesting grounds for the bird. Interestingly, just the simple exclusion of foot traffic resulted in one of the rangers’ mostly highly successful restoration efforts, as native dune vegetation quickly returned. The rangers have done some minor weeding in the area, but mostly it has recovered by keeping people from trampling it.

Protected Western snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) habitat. This area is the site that was successfully restored due to the exclusion of human foot traffic.

Posted June 8, 2015

On Wednesday, May 27th, our Restoration Ecology class visited the Alviso site of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, located about seven miles north of the SCU campus, to deepen our understanding of the ecology of salt marshes. During the field visit, we observed various zones of vegetation, which are determined by a number of factors, including soil salinity and inundation. A difference in elevation above or below mean tidal height of even a couple feet can create a gradient of habitat for widely varying species, which have adapted to the ecological conditions.

The high salinity found in the ecosystem has led to plants adapting different strategies to tolerate the salt. Salt crystals on the leaves of plants that excrete salt via special glands were visible to the naked eye. Other plants store salt in cell vacuoles to protect the cytoplasm from salt toxicity, giving them a succulent tissue.

In addition to the species diversity, we were able to witness the various stages of current restoration efforts. The Refuge comprises not only salt ponds, but also contains salt marshes, tidal sloughs, and mudflats. Over time, San Francisco Bay has lost an estimated 85 percent of its historic wetlands habitats, leading to a loss of habitat for fish and other wildlife, including birds, which use the sites as resting grounds during their migratory journeys. The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coastand requires constant management. The Alviso salt ponds were previously owned and operated by Cargill Inc. to commercially harvest salt. In 2003, the land was acquired from the company to restore the salt ponds to wetland habitats. The project, when completed, will restore approximately 15,000 acres of industrial salt ponds to a mix of wetland habitats, including some areas that will remain as salt ponds. Additionally, the project will provide flood management in the South Bay, which is crucial in light of rising sea levels due to climate change. The Refuge also serves as a site for nature education and provides public access for recreational uses.

View of the salt marsh adjacent to the Alviso nature
education center. Photo by Kayla
Wells

A view from the
floating dock on the Guadalupe River, which runs through the marsh on its way
to San Francisco Bay. Photo by Heidi Jonson

Salvia spathacea,
commonly known as Hummingbird Sage, is a California native with a strong
fragrance. These flowers have dried up, but when in bloom, they are a bright
magenta that attracts hummingbirds. Photo by Kayla Wells

Students
in Restoration
Ecology stand on the floating dock and observe bird species in the distance. Photo
by Kayla Wells

The brackish water where the Guadlupe
River meets the marsh has a fringe of cattails and Schoenoplectus
acutus, commonly known as
tule. Beware the plant seen in the foreground! Conium maculatum, with
its white flowers and purple-spotted stems is also known as Poison Hemlock.
Following his death sentence for corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates is
reported to have drunk a concoction of this plan succumbed to his death. Photo: Kayla Wells

This is the largest tidal marsh restoration project on the West Coast. Photo: Heidi Jonson

For our serpentine soils field trip we visited Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve located at the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Many of the hillsides in the preserve contain outcroppings of serpentinite, our state rock. Soils forming on serpentinite have unusually high concentrations of some metals, and they undergo very slow soil development, due to the fact that many plants cannot grow in these conditions. A few endemic plants have evolved to flourish in this harsh environment. However, nitrogen deposition from automobiles has artificially fertilized some of these soils, which has allowed for non-native plants to take advantage of the change in soil composition and colonize the area. The purpose of this trip was to observe differences in the nitrogen levels in grazed and ungrazed serpentine soils. We hypothesized that the soils located in areas that have been grazed by cows would contain less nitrogen than soils located in areas where cows were unable to graze. Grazing would remove plants that contain the excess nitrogen and thereby prevent the nitrogen from returning to the soil. To test this, we took soil samples from grazed and ungrazed areas at our field site. Later in the lab, we will use these samples to determine the nitrogen levels in grazed and ungrazed areas. Our findings will be useful in assessing the effectiveness of grazing as a restoration method in serpentine soils.

Here Olivia shows us what serpentinite looks like up close.

The field site. Pictured in the background is recent fire damage to the hillside (brown/patchy forested area), showing how quickly these areas can recover from fire disturbance.

As we walked up and down the hill a few lone Elegant Brodiaea, Brodiaea elegans, flowers brightened our path.

Of the few remaining flowers on the hillside, our state flower, the California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica.

Students (left to right) Cori, Dylan, and Kirby delight in sifting through the soil to remove gravel.

After our data collection we had a little extra time to explore the nearby creek.

Down by the creek we indulged ourselves in some wild-grown mint, Mentha sp.

On May 6th and 13th our class was given the opportunity to visit the Coyote Creek Field Station of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO). SFBBO is an NGO that works to conserve bird species and their habitats. At this specific station, ecologists and volunteers capture birds in mist nets and band them to monitor resident and migratory bird populations. Each band has a unique number sequence individual to the bird it is placed on. These numbers are then recorded and the North American Bird Banding Program at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center keeps information about age, sex, and breed. These numbers allow groups like the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory to better track bird migratory patterns of birds and provide a universal system of information for each bird ID band. While we were at the Coyote Creek Station, field manager Josh Scullen taught our class different ways to identify the sex, age, and migratory status of the birds caught in the site’s mist nests. In addition to observing birds, we also learned a lot about the different zones of vegetation present. The first area, or transvegetion, was designed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to reduce flooding. This strip of vegetation mainly consists of shrubs and small trees, creating a dense understory. Furthermore, the next area was the overflow channel (Figure 7). This channel is a wide weedy pasture consisting of teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), foxtail (Hordeum murinum), and and mostly non-native grasses. This field is usually left untouched during bird breeding season in the spring months. As we moved closer to the river woodier vegetation appeared (Figure 8). This area was overall very open and contained little understory. It wasn’t until we reached the river that we saw natural growth vegetation, which was referred to as the old or mature growth section. This strip was very small in comparison to the other vegetation zones and led directly up into the steep bank and into the river.

Figure 1: Josh showing us the smaller fat stores on a Wilson’s warbler (Cardellina pusilla). Fat content helps to identify the bird’s stage of migration. Birds who arrived recently will have smaller fat storages than birds who are about to continue their migration.

Figure 3: Looking at feather molt patterns on a Wilson's warbler. The size and shape of feathers, as well as how worn out or recently replaced they are, are clues to the bird’s age (and sometimes its sex).

Figure 4: A bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) is weighed in a pill bottle! At only about 5-6 g adult weight, this is one of the smallest North American birds. Birds are weighed at the station to assess their readiness to resume migrating.

Figure 5: The brood patch on a captured bushtit. Nesting birds will have bare bellies to efficiently transfer body heat to the egg (juveniles also sometimes lack feathers here because they need not invest in warm feathers while growing quickly during the summer months). Note the metal band attached to the bushtit’s leg.

Figure 6: Students listening to Josh’s awesome lecture.

Figure 7: The 2nd zone of vegetation. This is the overflow channel that tends to flood after large rainfalls.

Figure 8: The 1987 restoration area. Shrubs were not planted here, so the understory is fairly empty.

Figure 9: The mist nets in the 3rd zone of vegetation. Each section of vegetation has twelve sets of mist nets that are connected by poles.

Figure 10: A song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) captured in a mist net.

In this lab section, we had the opportunity to practice our wetland delineation skills and vegetation surveying methods at Alpine Pond in the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. This beautiful preserve sits atop the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a prime location for bird watching and wetland exploration in the Bay Area. After a brief lecture on the methodology of vegetation surveying, students broke up into groups with quadrats, species identification binders, and wetland delineation data forms to practice vegetation surveying on their own.There are three H’s involved in the wetland delineation process: hydrology, hydrophytes, and hydric soils. Vegetation surveying is an essential part of the wetlands delineation process because hydrophytes are specially adapted to growing in water-saturated soils. If a majority of the sampled species found in a quadrat are characteristic of a wetland, then the ‘hydrophyte’ part of wetlands delineation can be fulfilled.After placing the quadrats on the sampling areas, students used their identification skills to record species’ scientific names and percent cover in the herbaceous stratum. Students also recorded the wetlands indicator status for each species, which can vary from plants exclusively found in wetlands (OBL), plants mostly found in wetlands (FACW), facultative plants that aren’t picky about wetland or upland habitat (FAC), plants mostly found in uplands (FACU), and plants exclusively found in uplands (UPL).Following identification, students filled out the prevalence index worksheet and performed a 50/20 dominance test to determine which species formed the majority of the cover. After completing the form, students could then determine if the hydrophytic vegetation indicated a wetland.

﻿﻿Thumbs up when you can identify all the plants in your quadrat!﻿﻿

Students Manpreet Kaur and Ethan Hazel calculating species dominance with the assistance of Professor Virginia Matzek.

Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides) in full bloom.

Restoration Ecology students pose after a successful day of delineating.

On the 22nd day of April, our Restoration Ecology class traveled to Alpine Pond located in the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. We were there to learn about wetland delineation, which is the practice of determining the boundaries of wetlands. There are three main aspects to this process: Hydrology, Hydric Soils, and Hydrophytic vegetation, known as the 3 H’s. This post will focus on the first two H’s, Hydrology and Hydric Soil. As the name implies, a wetland should be wet! So, wetlands delineators look for signs of groundwater at the surface and/or plant root zones at least parts of the year. Surface water feeds Alpine Pond, beginning in the hills surrounding the parking lot and flowing through canal ditches and the underground. We found surface water to be clearly visible at the edge of the cattails and all of our soil samples were soaked and muddy. Wooh, one H down!

Hydric soils are soils that develop in wetlands and have visible features from being affected by saturation. We used a shovel to dig a rectangular hole in the soil. We then used a smaller shovel to mark off the layers of the soil so we could describe their color and texture. The reddish-orange you see in the picture is where iron in the soil has become oxidized, and lighter grey soil layers are places where iron is reduced or depleted, due to being in a wetland.Tune in next time to see if the final H, Hydrophytes (vegetation adapted to saturation) are found at Alpine Pond!

On April 15, our Restoration Ecology class visited the Searsville Dam located inside the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. This dam, completed in the 1890s, measures 67 feet tall and 250 feet wide. Initially built as a source for potable water but never able to successfully fulfill that purpose, it was used for recreation for many years until it was closed to the public in 1975. Currently, water from the dam provides non-potable water for Stanford University. Today, the dam experiences some problems from extreme sediment buildup. Over 90% of the reservoir is filled with sediment and in some areas there is 40-50 feet of sediment accumulation. Part of this accumulation is a result of the erodibility of the Purisima siltstone surrounding the wetland. However, not all outcomes of sediment buildup are completely negative. Accumulated sediment build up has created a new wetland habitat.Searsville Dam now sees high densities of breeding birds and high numbers of bat species entering the reservoir to feed, in addition to the lush flora growing rapidly in the wetlands!

It was awesome to be able to experience the Searsville Dam, especially if we are close to losing it.Though it is in great shape and structurally sound, the dam is up for removal.As wetlands are so protected in the US (an awesome thing!), we can see how difficult it is for decision makers to answer the question “What should we protect?” Come May, we shall know their narrowed down decision for the future of the Searsville Dam… Stay tuned!

A view of the dam.

Looking over the edge of the dam on the downstream side.

The dam provides wetland habitat for many species.

Students walk across a not-so-permanent bridge surrounded by horsetails (Equisetum hyemale) and narrow-leaved willows (Salix exigua). The bridge exists in an ever-changing wetland and must be readjusted every so often due to continual sediment build up!

What did the camera capture? Six months at the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto.by Virginia Matzek, SCU Environmental Studies and SciencesPosted April 9, 2015

Only a few years ago, the segment of Mayfly Creek that runs through the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto was in a culvert, flowing out of sight underneath a barren horse paddock. It has since been “daylighted” (brought aboveground) and the environmental group Acterra has been planting native plants and removing invasive weeds from the area, with an army of hardy weed warrior volunteers.

Last spring, students in Restoration Ecology (ENVS/BIOL 151) installed game cameras in the restored creekbeds at the Preserve to monitor wildlife usage of the restoration areas. Until now, Acterra has had no data on wildlife at the Preserve except for anecdotal observations by volunteers during the daytime.

Yesterday, students in this spring’s ENVS 151 analyzed more than 20,000 images taken by the cameras from April to September 2014.

By far the most common sighting was of deer -- 368 separate instances! Other common mammal species were squirrels, including the California ground squirrel and the arboreal Eastern fox squirrel, which we observed on 110 separate occasions, and mice (Peromyscus sp.), which we observed 75 times.

We also found one snap of a bobcat, which brings joy to the folks at Arastradero, since bobcats have become very scarce lately due to mange and exposure to poisons. Also seven coyotes and two foxes, plus a handful of other small mammals including skunks, raccoons, opossums, and woodrats.

Birdlife was represented by wild turkeys, flickers, spotted towhees, scrub jays, house finches and house sparrows, and some adorable baby California quail, among others. Our cameras also caught a few reptiles, including a rattlesnake and several Western fence lizards, or bluebellies.

We hope you enjoy looking at some of our favorite shots from the cameras! Stay tuned….maybe next time we’ll “catch” a mountain lion.

Want to help with habitat restoration? The Pearson Arastradero Preserve holds volunteer work days every 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 9:30am-12:30pm.

Lynx rufus, the bobcat, is a welcome visitor at Arastradero, where conservationists are worried about recent population declines.

At first we weren't sure if we had a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) or a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) from this photo, but Ameet Zaveri of sfbaywildlife.info points out that the dark tail tip indicates our native gray fox. The introduced red fox has a white tail tip.

This was our only daytime sighting of a coyote (Canis latrans), but we saw many more in nighttime shots.

Is there anything cuter than a baby quail? How about 2 baby quails? The species is Callipepla californica.

“I have always wanted to be a field biologist,” Sharman Apt Russell begins her book, Diary of a Citizen Scientist. “I imagine Zen-like moments watching a leaf, hours and days that pass like a dream…a kind of rapture in nature and loss of ego.” Russell, a nature writer, signs up as a citizen scientist. This book will make you consider doing the same. There’s a project to match every inclination and Russell mentions most: botany, astronomy, archaeology, cell biology, and more. What Russell discovers is how to track, capture, and examine western red-bellied tiger beetles along New Mexico’s Gila River. She becomes skilled in discerning instar larval forms, dissecting ovaries to discover and describe tiger-beetle eggs. But she doesn’t forget her humanity and makes no apology for anthropomorphism. When the river threatens to flood their nests, she calls out to the beetles, mimicking a forest ranger calling out to campers: “If you are within the sound of my voice, you must evacuate.” She allows her observations to roam at will, to Gila Valley bighorn sheep: "The growth of a wild sheep's horn follows a mathematical series in which each number is the sum of the two previous numbers--similar to other spirals in nature, nautilus shells and sunflower seeds and galaxies. After the fourteenth number, every number divided by the next highest results in the length-to-width ratio of what we call the golden mean, the basis for the Egyptian pyramids and Greek Parthenon and for much of our art and music. In our own spiral-shaped cochlea, musical notes vibrate at a similar ratio." The Fibonacci sequence. Reminds me of hexagonal close-packing in nature: lava, honeycombs, helenium flowers. Leaves me breathless.

And, in the beginning, weren't all scientists citizen scientists?

Hidden VillaBy Ashleigh Bandimere (SCU, 2015)Posted December 9, 2014

Hidden Villa is a farm nestled in the hills off of I280 and is the perfect illustration of how we all wish our food was produced. The farm is a CSA, or community supported agriculture program, where local families invest in the farm and receive produce in return. This is becoming a popular system that connects consumers to their food and the farmers that raise it. This not only benefits the consumers by involving them in their food production, but also protects and financially supports the farmers through unfavorable seasons. While Hidden Villa is an impressive CSA, providing for 130 families, it goes above and beyond the average small-scale local farm. They cultivate only 10% of their land and the remaining 1,440 acres are protected under a conservation easement, and are legally protected in perpetuity from any development or fragmentation, even by Hidden Villa. The protected land belongs to the wilderness, and the farm is integrated into it. While I was there, I observed multiple mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), cotton-tailed rabbits (Sylvilagus bachmanii), Stellar’s Jays (Aphelocoma californica), Dark-eyed Juncos, gophers (Thomomys bottae), Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) , and fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) populating the farm. Many of these are considered pests in agriculture, but are accepted and even welcomed at Hidden Villa. The farm implements a system called integrated pest management and relies almost entirely on predator/prey relationships for pest management. This promotes a complete and healthy ecosystem rather than some mainstream farms that are at constant war with their surrounding ecology in an attempt to suppress and dominate it. Hidden Villa provides a compelling and inspiring argument that humans, agriculture, and nature can successfully work together.Hidden Villa is also an educational facility that runs classes, summer camps, and internships. They have hiking trails and welcome visitors that want to check out their facilities, livestock, and methods. For schedules and more information on the farm, visit their website.

A field station nearby!By Taylor Kelly (SCU, 2016)Posted: November 18, 2014

On October 28, several SCU Gone Wild students, professors, and guests took a field trip to Blue Oak Ranch Reserve (BORR). BORR is a University of California nature reserve and field station that is less than one hour away from campus. We were joined by Michelle Bezanson, John Farnsworth, Dennis Gordon, Harry Greene, Craig Kirkpatrick, Katie MacKinnon, Justen Whittall, Taylor Kelly (BIOL, 2016), and Allison McNamara (ANTH and Env Studies, 2015). It was a clear day and the temperature was in the low 70s. As we turned into the research station we stopped to watch a group of 4-6 feral hogs under the shade of the tall oak trees. The feral hogs are invasive but the construction of a hog- fence perimeter coupled with periodic culling has succeeded in decreasing the size of the invasive population. We then observed 5 wild turkeys and a few deer and we stopped to observe (and smell) a bush of camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). We arrived at the BORR field station main facilites where Michael Hamilton, the Reserve Director, shared the history and projects of the 1,319 hectare (3,259 acres) reserve. The Blue Oak trust purchased the reserve in the 1990’s, and in 2000 they entered into a conservation easement agreement with The Nature Conservancy as part of the California field office’s campaign to acquire land for conservation. The Blue Oak trust transferred ownership in 2007 to the Regents of the University of California. As a result the BORR facilities are now expanding to accommodate students, classes, and long-term researcher projects. This work is set to be finished in summer 2015. Currently, the site has a campground, indoor meeting and work space, a community kitchen, restrooms, a reference weather station, and a wireless environmental sensor network. BORR researchers have documented approximately 130 bird species, 41 mammal species, 14 species of snakes and lizards, 7 species of amphibians, 7 species of fish and many invertebrates have been observed.BORR's iNaturalist project page can be found here.During the second part of our visit, we went on a nature walk on the BORR property where we encountered coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) and observed the majestic Northern Harrier Hawk (Circus cyaneus.) The oak trees were covered in a healthy layer of Old Man’s Beard, pale green lichen that anchors to bark and twigs that has been described as an indicator species for air quality. We walked around a human-made reservoir where we observed American Coots (Fulica Americana) the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorous) and a Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica). On the banks, Justen Whittall identified and showed us white snowberries (Symphoricarpos albus), honeysuckle (Lonicera), poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) and a giant sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Up above we spotted a Coopers Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) and Red Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) flying over the valley. As we walked through the wooded area up into the open grassland we identified a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) and several Mountain Chickadees (Poecile gambeli) hopping about under bushy cover. On our hike back to the research station we found several funnel spider (Agelenidae) holes. We stopped and enjoyed a wonderful lunch by Michelle Bezanson before we drove back to the SCU campus.On our drive back down the hill toward the main road, we watched a coyote (Canis latrans) foraging in the yellowed grassland. The coyote stopped, paused for a brief moment in the tall grasses, and then disappeared over the hill. I was delighted by the natural beauty of the reserve and hope to return again soon.

For many people, snakes are more likely to inspire fear than romantic ideas of beauty. But, Dr. Harry Greene, author of Tracks and Shadows, and professor of Evolution and Ecology at Cornell University, revealed a new way to appreciate them. On October 29, SCU students staff, and faculty were lucky to hear how Dr. Greene learns about and appreciates natural history. His talk, “Natural History and Aesthetics: Why Care About Nature” was equally philosophical and scientifically informative. It is no wonder that snakes incite fear in humans, as they eat over twenty-eight species of primates and inject their prey with a lethal cocktail of digestive juices. Yet, Dr. Greene successfully conveyed why they, and many other organisms that are not traditionally revered, are in fact admirable creatures. He defined the ideas “beautiful” and “sublime” providing an alternative way to observe nature. Beauty, he explained, only concerns the form of the organism, with no context, while “sublime” is unbounded to an individual, and is completely dependent on its context in the world. It is the difference between caring about a species simply because it is cute and cuddly, and caring for a species for its role and value in the context of nature and the world. To some, snakes may not be beautiful, but they are sublime. This idea of sublimity relies completely on education about an organism's context in the world, and Dr. Greene claimed that education is at the core of loving nature, and is therefore at the core of conserving it.

Before I traveled to Costa Rica for my summer 2014 abroad experience, I never realized how easy it is to be sustainable as a Santa Clara University (SCU) student. You almost have to work hard to be unsustainable at SCU, what with the clearly labeled trash, recycling bins, composting bins and recycled irrigation water. And as college students, we are pretty serious about our conservation and sustainability. We take pride in our “reduce, reuse, recycle” mentality and our campus sustainability report cards. We live in a conservation bubble at SCU and the U.S. and this may not exist in other settings.My experience as an ecotourist in Costa Rica and a field researcher at La Suerte Field Station has made me more aware of waste diversion in varying contexts. Having been in both roles, I’ve learned a lot about how our study abroad and field research trips influence sensitive environments. My readings and personal observations opened my eyes to the issue of both waste management and ecotourism in Costa Rica. The trash here is burned, which didn’t really hit me until I saw (and smelled) it at our field site and in Primavera, the small community near our field station. At the field station, it has made me hyperaware of every piece of trash I bring, create, and whether I approve of it being burned. I’ve been reusing things like my plastic bags, and my field roommates and I have been collecting our non-paper waste (like my granola bar wrappers), to bring back to San Jose, Costa Rica or in some cases, San Jose, California. Even in the capital of Costa Rica, recycling is challenging, so we plan to bring our used plastics back to the U.S. The real problem is that most tourists don’t spend the time to research how waste is managed elsewhere and expect it to be as user-friendly as our campus. As tourists and researchers we are responsible for what we bring in and leave in other countries, and need to be more aware of this responsibility. My first experience in Costa Rica was as an ecotourist in Tortuguero National Park. This appears to be responsible tourism its ‘green’ and forest friendly goals described in brochures and websites. We took wildlife tours through the canals, went zip-lining through the canopy, and were lucky to observe a turtle nest and lay eggs. We became one with nature and felt good about ourselves. However, this “up close and personal with nature” goal of ecotourism may actually be problematic. Our tour guide explained that once a turtle started to lay eggs, she was immune to activities around her. He demonstrated this by picking up and moving her flipper to show us turtle anatomy. True, she didn’t appear to react, but I am unable to imagine our exact impact and stress. We also observed an “unsuccessful nesting activity,” where the turtle climbed onto the beach and then returned back to the ocean. This occurs when something (for example 50 humans) signals that the beach isn’t safe. All of this being said, I don’t want to demonize ecotourism; becoming one with nature is awesome, as long as it is done responsibly and we research every possible way to minimize impact.We researchers and tourists have a duty to educate ourselves and to be aware of how our actions may be impacting our activities in sensitive environments. Many areas differ in waste diversion possibilities when compare to our college campus settings and we need to act responsibly when we travel. As student researchers, we have a responsibility to act as stewards to make certain we preserve our research and vacation environment and serve as an example to all human communities we encounter. Even if that means using biodegradable soap that makes you smell a little weird or carrying your trash home. Some readings that may be of interest:Bezanson M, Stowe R, Watts SM. 2013. Reducing the ecological impact of field research. American Journal of Primatology. 75: 1-9.Blangy S, Nielson T. 1993. Ecotourism and minimum impact policy. Annals of Tourism Research 20:357-360.Hodder J. 2009. What are undergraduates doing at biological field stations and marine laboratories? BioScience 59:666-672.Jacobson SK, Figueroa Lopez A. 1994. Biological Impacts of Ecotourism: Tourists and Nesting Turtles in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica. Wildlife Society Bulletin 22: 414-419.Simon GL, Alagona PS. 2009. Beyond leave no trace. Ethics Place and Environment 12:17-34.

by Kayla Wells (Biology, 2016) We arrived at Blue Oak Ranch Reserve Saturday by 10:15am with clear skies and sights of meadows sprinkled with large oak trees. By now we had already spotted deer, red- tail hawks, and a handful of gophers. We set off from Cedar Barn after meeting Erik Viik, the reserve steward and Michael Hamilton, the reserve director. Our first stop was at Barn Pond where we observed stellar jays, acorn woodpeckers, and ducks on the pond that we identified as bufflehead ducks and northern shovelers. One thing we noticed in particular was that many oaks on the reserve were covered with mistletoe. We continued up the hill transitioning from the wooded chaparral area to open grassland. Slightly before the turn for West Pond we saw at least three Mule Deer on the far hill. A little further down the trail we found a hole of a funnel spider. After a rest under a large shady oak tree we continued on Alum Rock Falls Road and circled back around to Cedar Barn totaling a hike of 2.26 miles. Upon arriving back, we had a nice picnic lunch while Michael filled us in on the history of the reserve. A lot of very hard work went in to building the reserve and protecting it from non-native species. Their work however, is nowhere near complete. Recent funding will result in 10 new researcher and student cabins, new lab facilities, and more solar panels to power the reserve. Their main goal will continue to be increasing knowledge of the natural site without harming biodiversity. They have been doing an amazing job and I look forward to the next time I am able to return to the site and learn more. Here are some pictures from the hike...Note: Blue Oak Ranch Reserve is a University of California ecological field station near San Jose California. You can find detailed information on the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve website. And be certain to check out what they have caught on their wildlife cameras here.

SCU gone Wild is supported by Santa Clara University's Office of the Provost Sustainability Research Initiative Grant and the Center for Science, Technology, and Society Willem Roelandts and Maria Constantino-Roelandts Grant Program.